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from Bicycle Thieves

Bicycle Thieves #5

Just returned from the dentist. 80$ consultation. Telling me what his secretary could have told me for nothing. Next Thursday they pull them out. When the tooth starts to ache I have to stop everything and wait for it to subside. Like waiting at a railroad crossing for the train to pass by. You just hope it’s not too long.

‘The That Daughter’ was written as a plea. Teenagers don’t understand the dangers they face in life. But they do know that there is a lot of fun out there. Adults are blinded by the dangers. One of those dangers is fun. The other is parents who won’t let their kids have any. Michael wouldn’t listen to us. He started having fun in elementary school. He’s not 26. Pretty conservative guy. Was wilder when he was 13. Katie was discreet. She and her friends had fun but kept it in balance. Whatever that means. Now we deal with Natasha. I can see it in her eyes. We are so boring to her.

……………….

THE THAT DAUGHTER

“My father is all business. I cannot stand it. Always it is money with him. At dinner he counts how much each item cost him. The cost of the potatoes. And the vegetables. And the meat. Especially since he got it from a local butcher. It is the best. Without paying an arm and a leg. Cannibalism comes to mind. Father has mother bill him for the meal. It’s like eating in a restaurant. Without the tip. And of course father compares our prices to those at the Canadiana Restaurant. Looking at the savings seems to help father’s digestion.”

“And father will not eat Indian food. He says that we must become more Canadian. He says that we smell like what we eat. And we must smell Canadian. But my mother cannot cook spaghetti. Or stuffed heart. The thought of eating a heart makes my mother faint. Or Irish stew. What is Irish stew anyway? I have an image of a bunch of tiny leprechauns boiling in a big pot.

“And father makes us listen to the Beatles. My mother tries. She sings along with the song, With a little help from my friends. But she cannot get it right. She doesn’t understand the song. Why is it friends? She asks. Why isn’t it, family? And father makes us watch ice hockey. Field hockey, I can understand. I made the school team but father would not come out and watch us play. We are Canadians, he said. F*** the field. Play on ice. Well, he didn’t say the ‘f’ word. But he wanted to. It’s Canadian. Mother gets very upset when she hears father curse. He said we had to learn to speak Canadian. They use the ‘f’ word in every other sentence. My mother tried to use it. One time she used it at the small Indian grocery store she likes to shop in. The manager got very upset with her and told her she would have to leave the shop. She told my father. He got angry with her. Why do you use that language around our people? he said. You want to ruin my business!”

“My father forces me to work for him. At slave wages. Under intolerable circumstances. Paul told me to call the Ministry of Labour. Paul works next door in the pharmacy. A sweet boy. He comes over to talk to me when father is not around. Father has taken to meeting some friends at the Canadian Restaurant. Mother does not know about it. I can smell the beer off him when he returns. Sometimes he drinks so much that he takes a nap on one of the sofas in the back of the store. When he leaves, Paul visits me. Paul asks me if father hits me. Of course, he does not. Father is pathetic, but he is not a monster.”

“Sometimes Paul and I fool around. Nothing serious. Kissing mostly. And feeling each other up. Outside our clothes. Never under. Paul says that he wants to see me naked. He has never seen naked brown skin. I don’t know how he dares to talk like that. But I like it. Sort of. I tell him that that is definitely not going to happen. The word ‘that’ has replaced using the word ‘sex’ between Paul and I. I don’t know what I would do if father walked in on us as we were fooling around. He’d probably be pissed that I wasn’t at the cash register. In case someone came in. Who buys couches in the middle of the day? In the middle of the week? When Paul asks me questions, he writes everything I say down in a book. I asked him what he was doing. He said he likes to record other people’s thoughts. But those were not my thoughts, I tell him. I have one thought. I want to have some fun.”